For years, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) leaders have given contractors titles that grant access to a computer system that holds valuable information, former patent office employees say.
Unlike USPTO personnel, it’s not clear whether federal contractors go through the same background checks that federal employees go through, according to inventor David Hoyle, who has researched the subject extensively.
“We don’t know anything about them,” Hoyle said of the contractors. “Government employees automatically have security backgrounds. For contractors we don’t know anything.”
Even so, the patent office often gives these contractors access to the Patent Application Locating and Monitoring Database (PALM), a computer system that plays a crucial role in tracking inventions.
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